The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Caton Shale [Obsolete: use SILS]

Computer Code: CSH Preferred Map Code: CSh
Status Code: Full
Age range: Arnsbergian Substage (CG) — Arnsbergian Substage (CG)
Lithological Description: [Obsolete: use SILS] Mudstone (claystone) grey to blue-grey, shaly, fossiliferous (bivalves and goniatites) with common calcite mudstone nodules and siderite-mudstone lenses in upper part.
Definition of Lower Boundary: Sharp boundary, with grey to blue-grey mudstone of the Caton Shale Member above fine-grained sandstone of the Ward's Stone Sandstone.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Sharp boundary at base of lowest sandstone in Claughton Member. Highest 1 or 2m of the Caton Shale typically silty, with Lingula.
Thickness: 60-70m
Geographical Limits: Lancaster Fells area.
Parent Unit: none recorded or not applicable
Previous Name(s): Caton Shales [Obsolete Name and Code: Use CSH] (-3336)
Caton Shale Formation [Obsolete Name and Code: Use CSH] (-170)
Caton Shale Member [Obsolete Name and Code: Use CSH] (-171)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Reference Section  Warm Beck Gill, Whit Moor, Caton. Nearly complete section through lower part of formation. Basal boundary exposed. Section commences 380m upstream of confluence with Crogley Gill Beck. 
Type Section  Cross Gill (Greenholes Beck) Littledale, Caton. Represents entire formation with some concealed parts. Upper boundary very well exposed at upstream end (Hudson, 1944, p238). Intermittent exposures, commencing 250m upstream of Crossgill Farm, Littledale. 
Reference Section  BGS Wray Borehole (SD66NW/5). (20.45m of lowest beds cored and logged, including basal boundary). c. 3500m south-east of Wray, Lancashire. 
Reference(s):
Arthurton, R S, Johnson, E W, and Mundy, D J C. 1988. Geology of the country around Settle. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 60 (England and Wales). 
Hudson, R G S, 1944. The faunal succession in the nitidus zone in the mid-Pennines. Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. Vol.4, 233-242. 
Moseley, F, 1954. The Namurian of the Lancaster Fells. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol.109, 423-454. 
Slinger, F C, 1936. Millstone Grit and glacial geology of Caton Moor near Lancaster. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Blackpool 1936, 345. 
Hudson, R G S and Turner, J S, 1933. Early and Mid-Carboniferous earth movements in Great Britain. Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Vol.2, 462. 
Waters, C N, Waters, R A, Barclay, W J, and Davies, J R. 2009. Lithostratigraphical framework for Carboniferous successions of Southern Great Britain (Onshore). British Geological Survey Research Report, RR/09/01. 184pp. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
E067